Our Kids are Practicing What They Preach

Thanks to an innovative “social web design site” called NetGenDesign I was introduced to a video that got me thinking in new ways about the generation that defines my children–the Millennials. The information shared wasn’t all that new but the video presentation really helped to drive home the message in ways that impressive authors and witty columnist hadn’t.

These kids, our children, will be inheriting the most debt of any generation before them along with some of the worst global issues ever.

Just as I was about to slump in resignation, guilt and sorrow about the legacy we’ve left our kids, the video shifted its focus to other realities. Come 2016 these Millennials will form the largest voting block in North America.

Collectively they are the most culturally diverse, volunteer oriented, anti-war focused, environmentally sensitive and technologically brilliant of any generation to date.

What I ultimately took from this video is that this generation that we’re raising will be uniquely ready for the challenges facing them.

It’s as if we created a generation specifically wired for the mess we left them.

Comments

Thanks for the great article. I think while the video is definitely interesting, there is also a definite feeling of negativity towards my generation (millennials) in the general public.

It’s really hard for some members of older generations to understand why exactly we spend so much time “online” and “talking to our friends” when it’s completely backwards of the way they used to do it.

We literally have lived through an amazing jump in technology – from the brick-cell phones to ones that rival Star Trek technology. From AOL 2.0 to Facebook, Twitter, Gmail… it’s outrageous the sorts of things we’ve seen come about in the last 20 years.

I’d like to think that we’re all in this together – and you mentioned that we’re going to be the largest voting block by 2016. But the sad fact is that many of us forward-looking youngins didn’t vote for the guy who wants to protect the environment, but the guy who was looking to pull a few million barrels out of Alaska for profiteering companies.

As cool as it is to have Obama blogging, releasing weekly podcasts, and Twittering, it just didn’t seem to connect with a lot of us for whatever reason. Every election definitely won’t be as high-tech as this, and Obama certainly should be applauded for his efforts, he really whomped McCain in technology use. I guess what it means is that even millennials are still susceptible to the same R’s and D’s that have been around for years.

I think, and here’s what I’m really hoping for, that Twitter and our online social movement will enable a third party or a fourth party, outside the R’s and the D’s to really be feasible in the near future (let’s say with in the next 20 years)…

I’d really like to see that. And if it does… watch out, America. Armstrong 2024!